I haven’t updated my blog in, oh, about three thousand years. I may be the worst blogger ever. To say there’s been a lot going on feels like a giant understatement. I’ll skip most of it because it’s nothing remotely glamorous or cool, BUT… the cool part is that we did open up a One Lucky Duck in Chelsea Market! We had a bit of a false start and there’s a story there but I’ll save it for another post. The first time around there was a bit of a bump in the road, or… two really big bumps. If I were to write a memoir chapter on this episode some day, it would be titled “One Lucky Duck and Two Fat F*%ks”. Pardon my French. But, this time we’re running the show and open for good. J I LOVE LOVE LOVE Chelsea Market! If you haven’t been there, go now!

Whether you’re at Chelsea Market or at 17^th street One Lucky Duck or sitting at Pure Food and Wine (which is now open for lunch too… one lucky duck menu 12-3pm), you can order one of these Valentine’s shakes. Truth be told (which I have a habit of doing) I’m not much of a shake person. I usually prefer to chew my food. But this one’s different… I think it’s the special ingredients. Lucuma, Yacon, Maca! They’re “adaptogens” which are supposed to be good for your hormones and mine have been raging these days so I think this shake makes me feel better. Plus, if I may say so myself, it’s damn tasty. I was never a huge fan of maca before. But it works here along with the yacon and lucuma. All blended into this Chocolate Covered Strawberry shake. Sorry for the sucky photo… I don’t have access to better ones at the moment, this was a quickie from an iPhone in the kitchen. I’ll add more pix later!

So I was feeling really brilliant when I came up with this, in part because I’ve been so busy I haven’t made up anything new in forever, and also because these special ingredients just happen to be really good for Valentine’s Day. And they ended up working really well in a strawberry and chocolate context, also very Valentine’s Day appropriate. You can make this shake using either coconut water, or cashew milk, or some of both. I like some of both. If you don’t want to make cashew milk by soaking and blending the nuts, you can always make really fast cashew milk using cashew butter. Put a heaping tablespoon in the blender and add a cup or two of water and blend. Easy.

I’ll post the recipe below, and some info on maca, yacon, and lucuma (wonder foods!). But first, a note on Valentine’s Day. I’m going to regurgitate a paragraph from a post I wrote a few years ago (click here to read the full post). (I just noticed that in the beginning of that post, I open with guess what? An apology for not having posted in ages!) Anyway. I babble about how much Valentine’s Day can suck, with all the expectation that comes with it, or for some, the feeling of loneliness. But I’m really much more optimistic than that. Anyway. For inquiring minds that want to know, I had a Valentine three years ago when I wrote that blog, and I have the same one this year and am feeling very lucky. Though, it’s Valentine’s night and he’s fast asleep on the couch right now.

Karen here at the Duck posted the paragraph in a newsletter and the response was so sweet so will put it again at the end of all this.

One to the wonder foods.

What’s so great about Maca? It’s a Peruvian root and tastes sort of like malted butterscotch. It’s supposed to increase energy, endurance, physical strength, and libido. Apparently, ancient Incan warrior soldiers would consume this precious root before battle to make them fiercely strong, but then were prohibited from taking it while in the city in order to protect women from their heightened sexual appetite. (I’m wondering why they all just didn’t eat maca and get it on?). Being an adaptogen (like ginseng) it’s supposed to balance your hormones and so enhance your ability to handle stress. There’s another reason for me to drink lots of these shakes. Also, it’s high in calcium, B1, and B12. Also good for PMS! Hooray!

And Yacon and Lucuma? I only recently discovered how much I love these. I didn’t get to put any recipes using them (or maca ) in my last book. I only mentioned them, with a little bit of info. And I think I said that if I had pet hamsters I’d name them Yacon and Lucuma. I’m surprised my editor/publisher didn’t strike that sentence. Aside from cute pet names, Yacon and Lucuma are two more Peruvian super yum foods. One fruit, one root. The fruit lucuma (also known as egg fruit) has dry flesh with a sort of maple-y sweet potato-y flavor and is incredibly low glycemic. It’s highly nutritious with lots of beta carotene, iron, B2 and B1. It’s mildly sweet but works really well in certain fruit shakes. I’m definitely going to work on a lot more shakes using lucuma.

Yacon is a tuber (root veg), also incredibly low glycemic (some say non glycemic) and it’s said to be a good digestive aid and also to help with nutrient absorption and weight loss, and, because it helps balance your hormones, is good for fertility. The sweetness in Yacon comes from a complex sugar that breaks down into, get this, fructooligosacharide. Or, FOS. It’s a special type of fructose that the human body can’t absorb and so it leaves the body undigested. This is why it’s so good for diabetics. It also contains only about half the calories of other sugar sources. Finally, the FOS promotes the production of healthy probiotics, which is how it helps your digestion. Screw Activia, just use lots of Yacon. Beware however, it has a very rich molasses-y flavor.

On to the recipe:

Chocolate Covered Strawberry

For 2

1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1 cup frozen banana

1½ cups coconut water

1½ cups cashew milk  (OR, 3 cups of either one)

2 heaping tablespoons yacon powder

2 heaping tablespoons lucuma powder

1 heaping tablepsoon maca powder

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

2 tablespoons agave nectar or pinch stevia (optional, if you like it extra sweet)

Pinch Himalayan sea salt

1 heaping tablespoon cacao powder (add for second half)

Put all the ingredients except the cocoa powder in the blender and blend. If it’s too thick add more coconut water or cashew milk. Taste and add agave or stevia if you want it sweeter (or, more lucuma). Fill two glasses halfway, using about half of what’s in the blender.

Add the cocoa powder to the remaining shake in the blender and blend. (add cacao nibs too if you like those in your shakes). Top off the glasses with the chocolate. It helps if you pour it gently around the inside perimeter of the glass (otherwise it will just fall straight down in the center and you won’t get the pretty layers). Put a raspberry or strawberry on top and sprinkle w/ cacao nibs. YUM.

Because we love these ingredients, for a little while we’re having a special on yacon, lucuma, and maca… you can get all three at a reduced cost, online only. You can also get them all individually in our juice bar on 17th street (and I’m adding them to Chelsea Market shop this week!)

Okay, finally, here’s that last paragraph, potentially really sappy, from my years ago Valentine’s Day blog.

When you’re in love, make sure you love that person for who they are, not what they do for you, or what you want them to be, or do, or how you want them to make you feel.  Love without expectations.  Love without worrying so much about the future.  It feels really good that way.  And love all the people around you out of compassion.  Love people who don’t know better.  Love even people who are not nice to others, because those people are probably in pain.  Find a way to fill yourself up and feel secure enough to open your heart.  That’s when the good stuff happens.  Love makes the world revolve.  Put it out there and it comes back to you.  And it feels nice.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

xo Sarma

Look, it’s my favorite recycled photo from a couple years ago of me and Nick (aka Duckman). Festive?

It feels like summer just ended and now all of a sudden Thanksgiving is next week and after that, the winter holidays. The season of shiny red and green decorations every where we look, TV ads about holiday shopping, traffic jams at the mall, holiday parties, Christmas cake, cookies, and candy all over the office, and morning news segments about how get through the holidays without getting fat. FUN! I can’t wait.

Open a magazine and you’ll probably find an article about how to “survive the holidays.” What does that mean? What’s the result if you haven’t survived? You ate an entire Christmas smorgasbord, and the chaos of shopping, traveling, and your family was just too much and you’re in a ball rocking back and forth drooling egg nog, waiting to be carried off by the men in white coats? You literally transformed into a Christmas fruitcake?

I don’t think that needs to happen. But it can definitely feel like a lot of pressure! I should know, I’ve skipped out on the holidays altogether for 3 of the last 4 years. But I don’t want to do that anymore. Things don’t have to be as hard as we sometimes make them, by being too ambitious in our desire to make everything perfect and/or then delaying sorting out the details. (Being a perfectionist and a procrastinator is not an easy combo of traits to have!) Anyway, I’m getting much better in these areas.  We’re doing a pretty cool gift card promotion at One Lucky Duck (and Pure Food and Wine) (basically, like a free $20 card if you buy a $100 card, and it scales up/down, more details in the following link) through 12/20. I posted all about this on our Duck News blog and also about my favorite ideas for (perfect) holiday presents. To read that longer post and fun stuff, click here!  Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Holidays.

I’m a terrible shopper. I never do it. Or, hardly ever. And I don’t really enjoy it. I mean, not that I’m not looking forward to lots of shopping one day, or better yet, a personal shopper! But, for now, I just don’t shop. I “shop” by digging around in my closet to find something from long ago I’d forgotten about that I can get away with and also fit into.

I had to go to an important party a while back and was trying to sort out what to wear. So I emailed my friend Chloe Jo. She’s a Pure Food and Wine / One Lucky Duck regular, and the fiercest glammed out vegan. She also started girlegirlarmy.com—your “Glamazon Guide to Green Living” where you can sign up for a newsletter to get the green and totally animal friendly fashion hook up. Whenever I’m around Chloe Jo, I feel like a total bag lady. Anyway. When I mentioned that I didn’t have anything to wear and would probably just wear my usual random summer dress and sneakers, she was like, “NO to sneakers, girl! Go down to Kaight and pick out something hot. And go to OlsenHaus for shoes.” She then followed up with lists and links for where to go to find the best in eco-fashion. She was all over it. I surfed through the links and even took a trip down to these stores. My favorite online discovery was Lara Miller. She has beautiful dresses. You can check out all her collections on that site. (BTW, my birthday is coming up and that coat on the right side of p. 3 of the ’09 fall collection is pretty cool. Just in case anyone needs to know. Right. Also, just in case… a Sony Vaio TT series notebook, a spa vacation, cash money…). Anyway. Also while surfing, I came across embodies.com – definitely one of the coolest eco-clothing online stores I’ve drooled over. I can’t write about eco clothes without honorable mention to this coat from loyale. I got one two years ago. It’s like wearing a teddy bear.

So what did I end up wearing to that party? Yes, something from the back of my closet (very economical!) I settled on a dress I got four years ago, and some mary jane heels that have taken me to a party or two (and even spent time immersed with me in a hot tub after a particularly fun hotel wedding, but that’s another story). Still, I later ended up getting a pair of the fiercest vegan shoes, from OlsenHaus (below). They happen to be the most comfortable pair of heels I’ve ever walked in. There’s a version in linen too that I want. I think I’ll always be most comfortable in a T-shirt, jeans, and an old pair of sneakers. But I think these shoes could convince me to wear sneakers just a little less often.

No, I’m not talking about nutrient deficiencies. This is completely different. This was forwarded to me by a friend and I found it profoundly interesting, and also heartbreaking in a way that’s hard to articulate. I don’t know how to properly credit who wrote this or where it may have been originally printed, since I don’t know. I googled it and found it’s been posted on a lot of blogs and sites. So if it’s old news to you, sorry! It was new to me. Anyway. Here you go. My commentary on why it hit me hard inside follows.

Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007. The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station, most of them on their way to work. After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing. He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried to meet his schedule.

4 minutes later:

the violinist received his first dollar: a woman threw the money in the hat and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:

A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him, then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:

A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly. The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. Every parent, without exception, forced their children to move on quickly.

45 minutes:

The musician played continuously.  Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while. About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.  The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:

He finished playing and silence took over. No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and people’s priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion reached from this experiment could be this:  If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most beautiful instruments ever made…. How many other things are we missing?

The friend who sent this to me said, “Made me think of how you recognized that the singer at the baseball game as a real talent when no one gave a sh*t!” The week before we were with a group at a Newark Bears baseball game, up in one of the suites. Just before the game, someone was introduced to come out and sing the National Anthem, as usual. Ho hum. Except shortly after he started, I had a major attack of the singing voice goosebumps. I’m used to this because it happens to me all the time when I hear a particularly beautiful voice. But this time it was like never before. I literally felt this rush of some kind of energy come in through my feet and then up my body, and then diffuse out my skin, and I had seriously extra prickly goosebumps. His voice was amazing, and he sang a song that’s known to be very difficult to sing perfectly. I had to focus really hard on not crying, because that would have been super embarrassing. After the song, everyone clapped and then went back to their conversations and iPhones, but I was standing there sort of reeling. Like, did everyone else just not hear that?

I told my friend about it later—I thought he might have remembered the singer’s name. He was introduced by one name and looked like many of the young, new hip-hop/R&B singers that go by one name. It was August 17^th, in case anyone knows. There weren’t very many people in the stands and most I think were there only to see Artie Lange throw out the first pitch. If anyone knows who it was, please let me know! I googled and couldn’t find anything.

A couple of months ago I was brought, last minute, to a screening of a documentary about Patti Smith. I sat in the front row. About halfway in, something had gone wrong with the sound, and they stopped the film. Patti came down to the front and took questions and then sang a couple of songs with her guitar. It was amazing. Goosebump city. Then someone asked her to sing that song, Because the Night. She said there was something about it that she couldn’t play on the guitar, so she’d just have to sing it, no guitar, nothing but her voice. I totally started crying. I mean, not audibly sobbing. But like eyes welled up and tears coming down my face, and I was all freaked out because Patti was only about two feet in front of me, famous designer sitting to my left, and friend who I’d met only the day before to my right. So now I’m all focused on trying not to move at all or sniffle and draw any attention my way. Do I reach up to wipe my nose and sniff, and risk someone looking at me? Or let the snot just run out and down over my mouth? This is what I was thinking about, while also getting slammed in my heart by her voice. I’d never heard anything like it before, and definitely not from that close up.

Same thing happened a couple of years ago at a Bad Plus concert. I’d never heard of them, but ran out last minute with my boyfriend and his parents, who I’d only just met, to see the show at this very small place here called the Vanguard. This time it was like during every song, little rivers flowing down my cheeks. There wasn’t anything I could do to make it stop! And I was totally mortified that his parents would look over at me and see my face a wet mess and think there’s something wrong with me. But then when I went to see them a year later, this time at Carnegie Hall, no tears. I think this weird reaction must have a lot to do with the fact that I’m not at all expecting to hear something amazing—instead I’m caught off guard.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m sensitive because I spend so much of my time running around distracted, worried about business, or something, attached to my laptop or fixated on reading from or typing into my blackberry. Basically, I’m not very ‘present’ most of the time. I wonder about the Joshua Bell thing… if I’d been there, would I have run right by, all focused on my stupid blackberry or lost in worry, and completely tuned out. Or, literally not have heard it at all because I’d have had my iPod on, as usual. I tend to walk really fast too. I broke my toe last summer, and all of a sudden, I couldn’t walk fast. I had to walk everywhere really slow, like one of those old people that everyone is running past. It was really interesting, because I noticed right away how different it was. I was actually noticing things around me. And I didn’t at all feel like tuning out with my iPod as usual. It was lovely. I looked at every person passing by, into shop windows, up at trees, noticing buildings I’d never noticed before.

This piece about Joshua Bell made me feel sad. Like he points out in the last paragraph, if many of us are so preoccupied, as I tend to be, what are we missing and why is everyone so fully disconnected from everyone around them?

So, I’d also forwarded the email with the violin story to my family, thinking I wanted to share with them something that made me stop and think about a lot of things. My little brother writes back immediately. I see the incoming mail and assume as I’m opening it that he’s written some reply acknowledging and agreeing with me on the profundity of the story. Instead, he wrote just this: “If a tree farts in the woods and nobody is there to smell it. Does it stink?”

 Thanks Noah. That made me feel better.